Maybe, Just Maybe
by Mankey133
Summary: What if someone had one day saw little Harry Potter in his cupboard when the Dursley's weren't around? What if they had called the police and child services? What if child services called someone by the name of Severus Snape to ask if he wanted to adopt? What if maybe, just maybe Harry Potter's life changes for the better by this action?
1. Chapter 1

**Hi! I realized that my chapters were way to short, and so I decided to combine them. They're still not very long, but they're longer than before. I put chapters 1-4 together and then I left chapter five on it own, but I'll be making it longer soon.**

**K! This story will be Severus/OC and Harry/Luna. Also, I do not own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter One**

The Dursley's were thought of as a nice, normal family. Vernon had a respectful job at Grunnings as the CEO and Petunia was a woman who many admired for her ability to keep a neat house and garden while caring for her son and husband at the same time. They were sought out by their neighbors for tips on which apple pie recipe was the best and what type of flowers would most compliment their gardens. They often even had unexpected guests join them for their daily afternoon tea on the front patio.

Vernon, of course, was always very kind and answered questions when asked, accepting or politely refusing invitations that were offered, and managing to gain some popularity that usually led to publicity for Grunnings and a raise for him.

Petunia, on the other hand, basked in the public esteem. As a child most of the praise from her parents was directed at her sister, but her sister wasn't here now so she greedily gobbled up all the compliments.

Respect for the Dursley's was held for eight years until IT happened. The Darmanes had decided to visit the Dursley's for evening tea one sunny Sunday afternoon. Vernon had opened the door with a large smile and a cheerful 'welcome' before leading them to Petunia who was in the kitchen. Petunia had quickly ushered them to the seats around the kitchen table, and once she was sure they were comfortable she had started making tea and biscuits. They talked to each other until the tea was made and off the stove and biscuits out of the oven. Petunia, after cleaning up the countertops, had quickly excused herself so she could give a quick goodbye to Vernon who was heading into town to withdraw some money from the bank and then go freshen herself up.

That's when it happened. As the Darmanes we're admiring Petunia's fine china, they heard a sniffe. Thinking that maybe it was little Duddly who had recently learned to walk and that maybe he had fallen out of his portable nap bed somehow, they, as dutiful parents of a young two year old son themselves, hurried through the hallway and into the living room where the bed was set up. To their great surprise they saw Duddly in the bed sleeping like an angel making soft snoring sounds every now-and-then.

Confused they started back to the kitchen, only to pause halfway when they heard the sniffle again. Quickly they spun around towards the living room only to see that Duddly hadn't moved an inch. Completely befuddled they entirely missed hearing the next sniffle, but they did hear the very loud cries of a young boy that followed.

The cries had made the Darmanes start for a second, but they quickly recovered and started searching for the source of the wailings. A quick look to the living room showed it wasn't Duddly who was letting his heart out to the world, so they began a house wide search for the poor darling who's cries Petunia seemed so oblivious to. Very quickly their search brought results, and they hadn't liked it.

They had found a small cupboard under the stairs that had a rather nice burgundy colored wooden hall table with several small knick-knacks sitting on it placed carefully in front of the door. Mr. Darmane had quickly but carefully moved the table and pried open the door only to be hit with a terrible, terrible stench and a wailing boy who couldn't be more than two, maybe two and-a-half years old sitting in his own waste with not even a diaper on.

For a brief second the Darmanes had stood in front of the cupboard, shocked that the Dursley's, the couple they and the whole neighborhood had looked up to for several years, had put a TODDLER in a cupboard, without any light source, then SHUT the cupboard door, put a TABLE in front of it and then walked away. It was obvious that Petunia wasn't going to come help the child since she hadn't come running down the stairs in a frenzy yet. But their moment off shock passed quickly as Mrs Darmane darted forward and carefully picked up the child before bolting out the door and running down the street to their house where she almost threw herself into her car and started speeding towards the nearest hospital to have the child checked out, leaving an equally panicked husband behind to use the Dursley's phone to call the police.

By the end of the day there wasn't a person in Surrey who didn't know about what the Dursley's had done. Their arrest had been spread all over the newspaper and the news, and their house had been swarmed with police and child services for a week.

A DNA test was done on the little victim, and he was found to be named Harry James Potter, the son of James Potter and Lily Potter née Evens, Lily being Petunia's deceased sister. A full scale search was set up to try and find any remaining family members besides the Dursley's, but no one was found. They had on record that Harry's godfather had been put in some secret prison recently and his godmother was currently in a coma, so with determination they turned towards their last resource, James and Lily's friends.

After several inquiries and an extensive search they found only one person, a man by the name of Severus Snape. He was a single man in his early twenties who had apparently become one of the youngest scientists of the day. They found he lived in his family home that was on a road called Spinsters End, and that Lily's childhood home hadn't been very far away. The older folk of the neighborhood told them that Lily and Severus had become friends on their own and had grown up to go to school together. Apparently they had had to resort to sending letters to each other when they were out of school and going on their different career paths as Severus's had him moving around the country a lot, but they had met up again when Lily invited him to her wedding. A little skeptical but with plenty of hope they sent Severus Snape a letter of invitation to visit and possibly adopt little Harry Potter a full three months after the whole scandal had began.

•••

Severus Snape happened to be relaxing in the comfiest chair his study held the day he received the letter. He had a small glass of firewhiskey in one hand and a new book called A Healers Guide To Potions in the other, and he was quite happy.

The source of his happiness came from a firecall he had gotten earlier. Albus Dumbledore had agreed to let him have the potions position at Hogwarts as well as the position as ahead of Slytherin House. Of course being the youngest potions master in four hundred years had helped him get both positions. Apparently Albus had been in desperate need for a potions professor, one who could supply potions at any given moment and who could apply potions in healing terms. Severus, knowing he would be able to do both, had applied for the job, however, in his resume he hinted that maybe being just a potions professor wasn't enough to tempt him into the castle. Albus, in desperation to keep the treasures he could provide, fired the current Head of Slytherin House and hired him.

Severus smirked thinking about the power he had just been given, and was in the middle of plotting ways to use this power to his benefit when someone knocked on the front door. Mumbling angrily under his breath he stalked over to the door and slammed it open, making sure to sneer down his nose at the muggle in front of him. "Say what you're here for and then leave!" He barked. The quivering muggle shakily held out a slightly crumpled envelope which Severus grabbed before slamming the door in the mailman's face.

Grumbling about annoying muggles disturbing him Severus marched back to his study and sunk down into his chair in a much fouler mood than a few minutes previous. With a vicious snarl he ripped open the envelope and harshly tugged out the letter. He was about to rip that up too when a few words caught his eye and made him stop: _...Lily Potter née Evans has been recently announced as deceased..._

For a moment Severus' mind completely blanked. Lily Potter née Evans. Lily Potter. Lily. No one had dared mention her name around him since that fatal night when she died, and here this letter was mentioning her and the fact that she was deceased as if it didn't know the grief he was still going through. Now with hands as shaky as the ones of the muggle he had just scared off Severus held the letter up and began to read.

_Severus Snape;_

_As you may or may not know your childhood friend, Lily Potter née Evans has recently been announced as deceased as of October 31, 1981 as well as her husband James Potter, leaving their son Harry James Potter an orphan. Someone we are not aware of handed Harry's guardianship to Lily Potters younger sister, Petunia Dursley née Evans. However, for some reason, Petunia Dursley and her husband Vernon Dursley thought they should try and keep Harry a secret. They, thankfully we're found out when a couple visiting the Dursleys found Harry crying in a cupboard under the stairs, sitting in his own waste. From the extensive search child services and the police did of the Dursley house they found nothing that would indicate to the child living there other than the cupboard he was found in. Rest assured the Dursleys have been fined and arrested and Harry Potter was taken in by Child Services until another family member or friend could be found. However, all family members are deceased and you are the only friend we were able to find, so this letter is our invitation to you. If you would like, you may come at anytime to see Harry Potter, and if you want, also adopt him. If you do not wish to adopt we understand and will make sure we find a safe orphanage for him. Thank you for your time._

_Surrey Child Services_

By the time Severus was done reading the letter he had lost all color in his skin and he was shaking violently. _Lily's son being treated like that, like a monster! _he thought, his head spinning. _Should I accept the invitation? Should I adopt the boy? No, I can't do that, I just got my job at Hogwarts and even with my all my cunning I wouldn't be able to convince Albus to let me bring him with me. No, I won't adopt him, but I will go see him!_ and with that thought firmly planted into his head Severus stood up and spun on his heel, apparating away with a loud crack.

He apparated into existence with the same loud crack in front of the revolving doors that led inside the Surrey Child Services building. Paying no mind to the fact that he might have just broken the Statue of Secrecy by appearing out of thin air in front of some muggles, Severus pushed through the doors and hurried up to one of the smart, but kind looking ladies at the front desk.

"Excuse me Miss-" He paused to look at her name tag. "Miss Dale, but I received an invitation by letter to come see Harry James Potter?" Miss Dale who had been sitting silently watching him talk looked down at her papers.

"One moment please." She requested. Severus stood silently watching her shift threw her rather large stack of papers, becoming more and more nervous with each passing second. Finally, Miss Dale found the paper she was looking for and held it out over the counter so he could take it. "This holds the basic knowledge of what could be gathered pertaining to Harry Potters situation at his aunt and uncles house before we were alerted by the couple we mentioned in our letter to you," she explained. "His temporary room number is labeled in the top left hand corner on the front side of the paper, just simply go down that hallway and stop when you reach the appropriate door." Severus nodded his thanks before going down the hallway she had pointed to.

_..12..13..14..15.._ Severus counted in his head as he passed the doors_. ..21..22..23..24..25._. Soon his mind became bored of the counting and pushed the little voice doing the counting as far away as it could. Now his thoughts turned to other matters. _Is he going to like me? Should I pick him up? Do two year olds still like being picked up?_ Suddenly the little voice counting the door numbers screamed _49_!

Jerking to a halt before the normal wooden doors for the second time that day Severus mind went completely blank. After a staring match with the door, in which he lost, Severus had finally gained back enough sense to reach out a shaky hand to the doorknob and turn it, before gently pushing the door open.

Behind the door was a normal if not rather small room. There was a small bed and a small table at the front end of the room and a circular red colored rug at the back. On the circular rug was a small two year old boy who looked very much like James Potter, playing with a stuffed hello kitty doll, and a young teenage girl who was watching him play with a small smile on her face.

When he had pushed the door open it had creaked, alerting the rooms occupants of his arrival. With sweaty palms and a stutter in his voice Severus said "I-I'm Severus Snape, and I've come to visit and possibly adopt Harry Potter."

For a second the rooms occupants just stared at Severus, but soon a huge smile spread over Harry's little two year old face. With a cry of happiness he stood up, dropping the hello kitty plushy, and threw himself at Severus legs and hugged them for all he was worth. Startled, Severus stood stiffly staring at Harry, not used to being hugged, before he relaxed and carefully reached down and picked Harry up. With three quick steps he was standing on the rug, and with one fluid motion he was sitting down on it cross-legged with Harry in his lap.

Katy, the girl who had been in the room with Harry before the man who introduced himself as Severus came in, had moved so she was sitting across from the two, and she smiled when she saw how happy Harry seemed to be sitting in Severus' lap. Harry was, at the moment, happily babbling on to Severus in his adorable toddler speech while waving his short, pudgy arms around. Katy smiled one more time before clearing her throat to catch Severus' attention. He looked away from Harry's face to hers.

"You seem to be very comfortable with Harry, are this way with all children?" She asked, a bit curious. Severus looked down at Harry again before back at her.

"No," he replied. "Besides my godson, Harry is the only young child I've really been around for several years." He fell silent as Katy studied him. Finally, after several long minutes of Katy staring at him, with only Harry's attempts to try and get his attention breaking the silence, Katy smiled.

"I think you and Harry will get along just fine," she stated smiling. "My name is Katy Gem, and I'm a part-time worker here. I'll leave you and Harry to get aquatinted." She smiled at the both of them before standing up and leaving the room, gently shutting the door behind her as she left.

Once the door was completely shut, Harry finally managed to get Severus attention. Severus set him on the rug in front of him and Harry quickly reached forward and grabbed his Hello Kitty. He proceeded to have Severus play with him for the next half hour before he became very tired and fell asleep, the Hello Kitty held securely held in his arms. Severus found himself smiling as he lifted Harry's small body and placed it on the bed under the covers. Silently he slipped out of the room making his way down the hall.

He was still smiling when he reached the front desk and standing in front of Miss Dale. "I take it your visit went well?" She commented seeing his large smile, and gave him a large smile of her own. Severus nodded. "Well then, I'm glad. I know this question is kind of sudden, and you may want to schedule for more visits before you make your final decision, but have you given any more thought to adopting Harry?" Severus then surprised himself by answering 'yes'. Miss Dale's smile grew even bigger, "Excellent!" She exclaimed, and suddenly Severus found himself in a plush office holding a still sleeping Harry with the Hello Kitty still held securely in his arms while signing the adoption papers. When he finished signing them, Miss Dale took the papers from him and filed them, and then proceeded to give him a rundown of everything he needed to know about how to care for a toddler. Twenty minutes later, it was a very happy Miss Dale who was ushering a very bewildered Severus out the door. She let him go with a, "I hope you two have a happy life together!" before disappearing back into the building. Severus spent a good minute standing in front of the revolving doors wondering what had just happened before he gathered Harry close to him and apparated back to his house.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't updated in a few days, but an idea came to me after watching a Scooby Doo Musical! (don't laugh) Anyways, I was thinking of doing a vampire story where Harry (Potter) is a borne vampire and is thrown out by his aunt and is picked up by an acting group who follow what they are sure the vampire lifestyle is like. So if I don't update again for a while it'll be because I'm working on that.**

**One last thing! In this story it will be Severus/OC and Harry/Luna.**

**Chapter 2**

By following Miss Dale's advice and through plain good luck was Severus able to raise Harry. After he had apparated back to his home, now Harry's home too, Severus had laid the sleeping Harry on one of his comfy leather armchairs in his private study and tucked a warm quilt blanket around his small body. The quilt was one of the few things Severus' mother had been able to give him before she died.

After making sure Harry looked comfy enough, Severus had sat down at his desk. Grabbing a quill and some ink, along with some letter parchment Severus had quickly scribbled out a letter to Albus, saying that even though he had already accepted the offered job, someone else had approached him recently and offered him an even better one. He had sent it out as soon as the ink had dried.

Soon after Severus had sent out the letter with his brown owl, Winni, Harry had woken up and had said in his adorable toddler voice, "I'm hungwy." Of course that little statement had Severus running all around the kitchen trying to find something he thought a two year old might eat, while Harry sat on one of the tall chairs around the kitchen table watching him and giggling occasionally. Severus was finally able to settle on chicken noodle soup, and ten minutes later he and Harry were both happily slurping it down.

It was as Severus was setting their empty bowls and dirty spoons on the counter for his house elf, Bab, to clean that Albus' pheonix, Fawkes, suddenly flamed onto the kitchen table, right in front of where Harry was sitting. Fawkes held the letter in his beak out to Severus, who took it, before allowing himself to be pulled into the surprisingly gentle arms of Harry who immediately started cooing over the pretty birdie. Severus had allowed himself a few moments to watch how Harry acted with the pheonix, noticing how gently Harry was holding Fawkes, before he opened and read the letter.

It basically was Albus trying to get him to stay in the Hogwarts staff by offering a higher salary and several rare potion ingredients monthly, weekly if that was what it took. Snorting, Severus had summoned some letter parchment from his study before grabbing the quill and ink he always kept on a little wooden side table in the kitchen. In his letter he thanked Albus but told him that his mind was already made up. Fawkes, sensing Severus was ready to send a letter to his human, had flapped his wings slightly and was able to get Harry to let go of him. Harry had pouted as he watched Severus put the letter in Fawkes' beak, but he smiled when Fawkes flamed away. He then started babbling to Severus about how pretty the birdie was and how soft his feathers had been.

A few days later found Severus walking around the town that was only about a mile away from Spinners End with Harry. As they were passing a small pet shop Harry had seen some puppies in the window and had promptly dragged Severus over to look at them with him. Doing some quick thinking Severus acknowledged that their house was decent sized and had a rather large, safe yard all around, and that he certainly had enough money to take care of a pet if Harry wanted one. Taking Harry's had in his he gently led Harry inside the pet shop.

For a moment Harry had just stood in the doorway, looking all around, before he bolted off to look at the birds. Severus followed him at a slower pace thinking, he's probably looking for one like Fawkes.

He was right, and when Harry didn't find one that looked like Fawkes, he had spent all of ten seconds complaining to Severus before he caught sight of the kitties and bolted off to look at them. Harry continued to run around the store, peaking through the glass at animals and sticking his fingered through the cage gaps to try and touch them, while Severus followed him at a much calmer pace and listened to whatever Harry said. The store owner watched them from the counter with an amused smile.

Finally, Harry stopped in front of one of the dog kennels and gasped. He stared at the little animals inside before turning around and running to Severus. "Papa!" He had shouted as he clung to Severus pants, "I want that one! Can I get that puppy, pwease?!" Severus hadn't a chance against those big green eyes and Harry's cute toddler talk, so he walked over to where Harry had been seconds before and knelt down to look in the kennel, Harry eagerly following him.

The kennel was full of little pugs, and Merlin were they cute! Suddenly the store owner was by their side. "These are some purebred pugs we received about two weeks ago," he had started explaining. "They're only about nine weeks old, but they can eat hard dog food and drink milk. Right now, all of them are only about six inches long and five or six inches tall, and they aren't very active. They like to snooze a lot and cuddle. They'll get more active as they get older. Pugs don't grow very big, by the way, only about a foot and maybe two inches long and eight inches high. They're very loyal dogs and love to lick people and be picked up and played with. They're also mostly indoor dogs, but they love to lay out in the sun."

After the little speech was done, Severus looked over to Harry, and seeing those big, green eyes staring at him with so much hope he couldn't not buy one of the pups.

Harry picked out a cute, tan one, and even though Severus knew how annoyed he would be later with all of the noticeable, tan dog hair everywhere, he also knew that Harry wouldn't choose any other pup since his mind was set. So Severus bought the dog, which Harry promptly named Princess (it is a girl). He also bought a large bag of dog food, a special dog comb that would help get loose hair off, a feeding tray, some dog toys (that Harry picked out), and a puppy sized summer dress with a matching bow (at Harry's insistence). He also filled out a form to have a dog tag made for Princess and put the complimentary pink collar he was given by the store owner on her.

They left the pet store with Princess in Harry's arms and walked home to put all the stuff they had just bought away and to take the sundress out of the bag and put it on Princess. It was about then Severus realized, as he was watching Harry pet Princess and coo over her in her sundress, that Harry had acted like this with Fawkes too. Maybe Harry liked being around animals more than he thought. Vaguely, Severus remembered a help wanted sign in the pet shop. Next time he went into town, he would look at it, he decided, but for now he was happy enough to sit and watch Harry try to get the sleepy pug to play with him.

•••

Just as Severus told himself, the next time he was in town picking up the dog tag for Princess at the post office, he made a detour to the pet shop to look at the help wanted sign.

"Oh, so you're interested in working at the animal shelter?" The shop keeper had said when Severus had asked who was asking for the help. "You do look a bit like an animal person, I guess, and you certainly coped well with all the animals shoved at you last you were in here. I'll get you an application, be back in a moment." And he disappeared into the back room.

Only seconds later he reappeared at the front desk again, holding a thick packet of papers. "Here they are Mr. Snape, just fill them out and when you're done bring the papers back to me, I'll turn them in for you when I go visiting my sister at the shelter this weekend." Severus had nodded his thanks to the man and started walking hurriedly home, hoping to get there before Harry woke up from his nap.

He managed to get home just as Harry was waking up, so after he had made the small boy comfortable at the kitchen table with a plateful of tater-tots and a sippy cup full of apple juice, he took Princess, who had taken a nap with Harry and woke up with him, out. After that business was taken care of, Severus made himself a ham sandwich and some peppermint tea and settled down next to Harry at the table, using one of the rarely used muggle ballpoint pens he owned to fill out the application papers while he ate.

Once he was done eating and filling out the forms, he took Harry's crumb filled, but empty plate and both of their cups over to the counter and set them down. Then walking back over to the table he smiled at Harry, who smiled back, and picked up HIS (adopted) son and carried him outside so he could play, Princess eagerly following behind them, the application papers left on the table to be remembered at a later date.

A few days later Severus was handing the application papers to the pet shop owner, who was wearing a wide smile. Harry was entertaining himself by the fish tanks.

"I hope you get this job, Mr. Snape," he said as he looked some of the questions and answers over. "It sure seems like a good job for you! Now, my sister, her names Izzy by the way, she's the owner of this animal shelter if you'll believe it. I bet you she'll be head over heels trying to hire you!" Severus merely expressed his thanks with a small nod before gathering Harry, who had some point started telling stories to the fish, and walking out the door.

As they walked home, Harry, who was holding Severus' hand tugged on it to get his attention. When Severus looked down at him Harry asked, "Is Izzy gowing to be my mommy?" in his little voice, an innocent look on his face. Severus blushed the whole way home.


End file.
